Designing mobile and responsive experiences that delight our users and meet our organizational objectives isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. User journeys can help. Understanding our users context is critical to the success of every app or responsive website. But more often than not, we jump right into discussing functionality and technical requirements without ever stopping to considering who our users are and what they need. While many of us seek out shiny new tools to prototype products, mapping the users’s journey is still the most reliable tool we can use to understand context and design mobile experiences that matter. Learning Objectives: 1. What journey mapping entails and why it is an essential tool for designing effective mobile experiences, or any digital experience for that matter 2. Practical tools and exercises you can use to understand user context and consider those insights in your app, or responsive website 3. Techniques for mapping user journeys with your team and applying what you’ve learned to build better user flows, features, interactions and interfaces

1. FOR DAMN GOOD DIGITAL DESIGN
Journey Mapping
MIMA SUMMIT 2015 - @REBEKAHCANCINO

2. Roadtrippin’ with Dad

3. Quite the journey

4. Remember these?

5. Roadside design decisions
UNDERSTANDING THE TRAVELER’S NEEDS

6. Get your kicks...

7. All the necessities

8. Not necessary at all

9. So glamorous

10. THINKING
DOINGFEELING
The user’s context
From Daniel Eizans

11. THINKING
DOINGFEELING
The user’s context
I need an
affordable place
to stay for the
night and a way
for the kids to
release some
energy
Driving for long
periods of time
with two kids in
the back
Carrying a lot of
luggage for the
family
Parent: tired,
hungry
Kids: restless,
hungry

12. Find motel Park, unpack
kids, lug into
lobby, book
room
Park near
room, unload
kids, bring
luggage
Take kids
swimming
Find food Go to bed
Dear God, no.
Hooray!

13. Motels vs. hotels: swimming pool, parking nearby
rooms, outside facing doors
Clustering necessities: lodging, food, gas
Roadside attractions with novel flair
Showers, truck washes, auto repair
And so on…
Contextually relevant experiences

14. Context, baby

15. Design for context
AND EVERYTHING ELSE WILL FOLLOW

16. Context

17. The mobile context?

18. “I love fiction. Unicorns, UFOs, faith healing, the
Mobile Web, the Mobile Context, psychics.”
- Stephen Hay

19. CONTEXT ISN’T TIED TO DEVICES

20. CONTEXT IS TIED TO PEOPLE

21. Responsive website or native app?
iOS and Android? Windows?
Features?
Gestures?
Wondering where to start?

22. THINKING
DOINGFEELING
Start with context

23. What actions are users taking to meet their needs?
What’s the real goal or hidden motivation?
Why are they here in the first place? What do they
expect?
What are their potential high points and low points?
What devices do they use? For what? When?
Then keep going...

24. Why map the journey?
BUILD ALIGNMENT, ADD VALUE,
AND MAKE STUFF THAT MATTERS

25. The world’s first
social streaming media player?

26. Wasted time and money

27. Create alignment and a shared understanding of the
users journey, behaviors, and needs
Remove politics and pet projects out of product design
Prioritize needs and identify key content and
functionality
Discover opportunities for innovation and delight
The value of journey mapping

28. Journey maps are strategic tools you can use
to save time and money, add value, and make
experiences that matter.

29. Understanding context clarifies user needs
so that you can create products and digital
experiences that deliver business results.

30. Strategic direction: Why are we making this, what
problem are we solving?
Required functionality: What content, features, and
functionality do we need?
Design decisions: How should this look, sound,
and feel?
Three kinds of insight

31. Strategic insight
WHAT PROBLEM ARE WE SOLVING?

32. Invite two groups of users from each key segment: they
formulate problem statement, you ask smart questions
Have internal cross-discipline team of stakeholders help
facilitate: build shared understanding, get alignment on
direction
Share ideas with the group: listen for nuances, patterns, and
hidden motivations
Codesign the way forward

34. Map the user’s context

35. USER + NEED + INSIGHT
An anxious aunt
sending a grad gift
To feel
good about
her gift
choice
Once she sends the
berries she worries
about if her niece will
be there to receive
it, will they spoil?
Uncover insight

36. Formulate a problem
statement, together

37. We believe that ___________ has ________________
and that ______________may solve this problem by
____________________ and _____________________.
We will know we have succeeded when
___________________and/or ____________________
reaches ___________________.
(USER) (PROBLEM)
(THIS SOLUTION)
(THIS ASPECT) (THAT ASPECT)
(QUANTATIVE MEASURE)(QUALITATIVE MEASURE)
(THIS LEVEL)
@kevinhoffman

38. Share with group, listen for nuances

39. Look for patterns

40. After working with customers to define problem and
map context, we discovered that the planned app
was the wrong solution all together.

42. Bonus, beyond the journey

44. Required functionality
WHAT FUNCTIONALITY AND FEATURES
SHOULD WE OFFER?

45. Journey evidence is everywhere

46. Mine the data, all the data

48. Made for in-store experiences

49. Search
For photos on your
phone while you’re
waiting
49
Select
Choose the photos you
want to print
Print & pick-up
Your photos are ready
for pick-up after your
waiting is through

50. vs.

53. Estimate yourfare here!

54. I mean ...

55. Map the journey

56. User steps ( their journey)

57. Features, functionality, content

58. Emotional triggers,
people involved in decisions

59. Critical steps, what’s going well,
what needs improvement

60. More control over his or her shopping experience
Reduce stress and provide peace of mind
Eliminate shopping hassles and automate applying
discounts or input of information
Give customers a great experience

61. Of customers would
pay more if they got
the top 3 experience
aspects they want
most from a retailer
53%
SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL, THE RETAIL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 2015

62. Of customers would
shop more often if
they got the top 3
experience aspects
they want most from a
retailer
77%SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL, THE RETAIL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 2015

63. Design decisions
HOW SHOULD IT LOOK, SOUND, AND FEEL?

65. THINKING
DOINGFEELING
The user’s context
I need a way to
relax, increase my
focus, and be
more intentional
New to
meditation and
trying to focus
their attention
On their phone
with access to
many distractions
Stressed,
overwhelmed,
scattered
unsure of how
meditation works,
curious

68. Authentic, helpful, and human

71. “I didn’t go looking for grief this afternoon, but it
found me anyway, and I have designers and
programmers to thank for it. In this case, the
designers and programmers are somewhere
at Facebook.”
@meyerweb
Inadvertent algorithmic cruelty

74. Super secure, or super annoying?

75. Customer:
“Why can’t I take a screenshot while using the Wells
Fargo app on my Android phone?”
Wells Fargo:
“For the safety of our customers we have disabled this
feature in the Android OS… Given that there could be
some sensitive info on the screenshot, we blocked this
capability on Android.”

76. Don’t assume, regularly test assumptions and ask
users for feedback
Stress test design decisions, see where an experience
might break down
Be careful

77. Start mapping
AND MAKE THINGS THAT MATTER

78. Journey maps help us: get strategic insight,
prioritize features and functionality, and make good
design decisions.
Whether you’re making decisions on content, features,
functionality, gestures or anything else in between—
understanding context and mapping the journey
helps you make it better.

79. Save time and money by getting to the best solution
faster with less rework.
Gain and retain customers by providing them with
elegant solutions they need.
The value of understanding context
and mapping the journey

80. mappingexperiences.com dschool.stanford.edu
Further reading

81. @rebekahcancino
bit.ly/designtogether
sitewire.com
togetherly.co
Happy mapping!